I don’t often go to Elephant & Castle. Actually I don’t think I have ever been to Elephant & Castle except for when I eat dim sum at Dragon Castle.

Dragon Castle is pretty much our fav dim sum in London (ok aside from Hakkasan but how often can you eat there) and at a stage we went so often that I had actually gotten to the point where I had pretty much figured out all of the nooks and crannys of the double roundabout underground tunnel system at the E&C intersection. Of course Sam, frustrated that he couldn’t find his way through the E&C maze, instead discovered a direct bus practically to the foot of the castle. Typical.

On first look, Dragon Castle seems like one of those cliché Chinese restaurants with ancient archways, faux-old china doors and a fish pond with waterfall at the entrance and you expect the food to be likewise… Seeing the place filled with Cantonese oldies on a Friday afternoon however, you quickly realise this is pretty much the real deal.

Whilst their dim-sum menu is limited, they seem to have all the dishes that we would order so that’s all that counts I guess. Did I mention that portions are huge?

Dim sum wouldn’t be dim sum if you didn’t over order. Chiu chow pork dumplings are my absolute favorite dumpling, and DC’s rendition was a decent pork, chive and peanut combination in a delicate skin. Prawn and chive dumplings were even more delicately prepared, with a thin skin, crisp prawn and cooked to perfection. Steamed sticky rice, bean curd rolls, chilli steamed stomach and chicken feet followed and all were tasty generous portions. But our last dish, a seafood consume dumpling left me a little disappointed. Perhaps it is my own fault setting the bar too high, after all we had just eaten an amazing rendition at Hakkasan a few weeks prior which still lingered at the back of my mind.

Looking back it seems like an awful amount of food for 2, but somehow we managed to finish it all.

What I love about Dragon Castle most is their ‘Dry Fried Beef Noodles’. After ordering all that food today, we knew we couldn’t possibly fit it all in. Without wanting to leave without our fav noodles, we decided to order it takeaway (for a cheeky post-fri-drinking midnight snack!).

Amazingly all that food, takeaway noodles, tea and service came to a mere £30. At £15 each, I guess you could assume it’s equivalent to a Royal China, but as we probably ate for 3 and took away another meal, it was amazing value for the quality of food.